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Why Whoopi Goldberg Doesn’t Want Anyone to Complete Her
She’s been married three times, but I think she is single at heart
“If someone says, ‘You complete me,’ RUN!” That’s the title of a book by Whoopi Goldberg. It is one of the many wise things she learned from a lifetime of experiences and wants to share with her readers.
I think Whoopi Goldberg is single at heart, as I explain below, but she sure has not spent her whole life single. As she explains:
“I thought that in order to be ‘normal,’ I had to be married. So I got married even though I knew it wasn’t right. When that didn’t work out I tried it again. And then again.”
Whoopi believes you need to know who you are and be honest with yourself and other people about that. Then you need to live that life that is right for you, and not the life that other people expect you to live or try to shame you into living.
Whoopi also wants you to understand those romantic songs and movies and even many commercials for what they are — fantasies and mythologies, not real life. “We think these movies give us hope,” she cautions, “but in reality they just create false expectations that will come back and bite us in the butt.” Same for the love songs. For example, Whoopi has an answer to the question posed by the Supremes, “Where Would I Be Without You?” Her answer: “Hopefully still yourself.”
One of the things I appreciated most about the book was something that is all too rare: Whoopi not only proclaims that she is not interested in coupling up, she recognizes that there are others who are not interested in that, either. She also affirms that there are other kinds of relationships and other kinds of love, in addition to the romantic variety.
Here are some of my favorite insights.
On Living Single
“I need you to understand that it is okay to want to be by yourself.”
What Whoopi thinks you should be doing: “…leading your own fulfilling life, learning new things, working on your career, your friends and family, your causes and passions. Instead of sitting around waiting for some guy to call, go develop yourself.”
